MIAMI — The only thing I loved about the Kevin Garnett snub was everything.

Did you see it this past week?

Ray Allen, part of Boston’s championship nucleus, took his (fleeting) talents to South Beach, joining the team the Celtics took to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals last season.

During the Heat-Celtics game, Allen went over to the Boston bench, hugged coach Doc Rivers, shook some hands and patted the shoulder of Garnett, who sat there with a fierce face. And Garnett sat statue-like.

OK, it was kind of a jerk move. I thought the Celtics got rid of “Big Baby.” But here’s why I loved it: We just don’t see this in modern sports, a dude so passionate about his team’s core, that when someone leaves for a clear-cut rival — basically saying that he has a better chance to win there than here — well, forget him.

“You know what, man,” Garnett told The Boston Globe, “I was just trying to stay as neutral as I could, but obviously I’m an intense person. Other than that it was blank, I just saw the Heat uniforms and obviously he’s on the other side and I just tried to play the game, man.”

Garnett is famous for being intensely intense. Boiling. Around the NBA, people will say he’s the best teammate they ever had. The definition of teammate. And around the NBA, people will say that if he’s not on your team, he’s “the loud person on the plane” annoying.

But basically, it comes down to this: He cares too much. And that’s pretty awesome.

The video clip got blown out of proportion, as if that was the clip that defined the game (the Heat won 120-107 in a Western Conference-esque shootout). Surely, Garnett wasn’t trying to make a statement to anyone other than Allen. It was a spur of the moment non-reaction. But the clip went viral, and so it basically sent a message to the rest of his team, city and league: We’re in this together and if you don’t want to be here, go get your suntan lotion and enjoy the beach.

Can the Celtics beat the Heat? I mean, it is the Heat. But you know this: They aren’t going to go down without a Garnett-like fight.

So why aren’t more players as fired up as Garnett? The played-out answer is free agency and guaranteed contracts. That still rings true. But the real answer is, Garnett is an anomaly, a throwback, a bully, a guy you wish was on your team’s bench, disregarding the opponent with delicious disdain.

Special Spur. The Spurs’ win Thursday against Oklahoma City was a Garnett-like statement.

They buried the team that beat them in the conference finals, and they did so in dramatic fashion — with a Tony Parker game-winning jumper. Here’s my take: If the Spurs are going to compete, again, for the top of the West, an X factor will be Kawhi Leonard. For the casual fan who doesn’t know him, start knowing him. The 6-foot-7 forward is ferocious. His hand width is 11.3 inches. To put that in perspective, the hands of Denver’s Kenneth Faried are 10.3 inches wide. Leonard gobbles rebounds with a Faried-like attitude and he uses the aforementioned hands for thievery. In the first two games, he had five steals in each, including one in the final ticks of the Thunder game, which led to the final Parker shot.

Numbers game. Nuggets rookie Evan Fournier made his first NBA splash this past week. Raised a question too: Why is he No. 94? He said it’s for the numerical distinction of his hometown in France (not his year of birth; that’s 1992). And so Fournier has now entered the pantheon of Denver sports No. 94s, including the Avs’ Ryan Smyth and the Broncos’ Jarvis Moss and Jim Szymanski.

He is basketball’s Brian Wilson. That beard, my goodness. Ty Lawson could hide in that thing. But Harden became the story of the NBA on Oct. 27 when he joined the Houston Rockets in an intriguing trade. Oklahoma City was a title contender with Harden, but knowing that a huge contract extension could put OKC well over the salary cap, thanks to the new collective bargaining agreement, the Thunder made a business decision, dealing Harden to Houston — where he promptly signed a five-year deal for $80 million.

“I’m a Harden guy,” Nuggets coach George Karl said of the 6-foot-5 shooter. “I definitely think he was third wheel down there and was talented enough to be the best player on somebody’s team. And (against Detroit), he sure looked like it.”

Yep, against the Pistons in the season opener, Harden scored 37 points. Oh, and he had 12 assists. And six rebounds. And four steals. It was fantasy gold. On Friday night against Atlanta, he had 45 points and seven rebounds. The Rockets won both.

It will be fun this season to watch Houston with Harden and Jeremy Lin, a headline-gobbling backcourt indeed.

Benjamin Hochman was a sports columnist for The Denver Post until August 2015 before leaving for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, his hometown newspaper. Hochman previously worked for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for its Hurricane Katrina coverage. Hochman wrote the Katrina-themed book “Fourth and New Orleans,” published in 2007.

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